Romance on-stage

Post by **Jon Bolden** » January 19th, 2011, 3:54 pm

Do you recall any of your most romantic moments? Moments that made the audience "aww..." or sent your heart a fluttering?

I recall a few myself...

1. I was playing a woman and Stacy was playing a man in an Austin Secrets scene last year. I Don't remember the secret or any of the details, I just remember feeling swooned by her charming advances.

2. During a Heist rehearsal, I remember deeply caring for my character's wife and kids and having a tender moment with her right before leaving to go onto another job.

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell · January 19th, 2011, 4:45 pm

when i got to do Boys of Summer, Andrea and i played a popular girl and nerd who fall for each other while planning the high school prom. it was a very sweet infatuation that played out with some sweet ass song making, James Bond references, an anguished sandwich order and a final kiss by the punch bowl.

before that show, i guested with GGG on an Austin access show. Aden and i had a nervous courtship on a park bench over a sandwich (again with the sandwiches! don't tell me my heart and stomach aren't connected!). it may have been the sweetest improv scene i've ever been in.

the last two 710 Split shows at Out of Bounds have ended with Jeff and I as estranged lovers sweetly reuniting. in '09, i was a man who had studied a number of esoteric practices seeking enlightenment, which was getting in the way of my fledgling relationship as we started living together. after a quest through the neighborhood during which i learned many lessons, i returned to our apartment and declared that while i had learned much, i also discovered that enlightenment didn't mean a thing without love and abandoned my search to be with her (Jeff). it was very somber and tender. in '10, Jeff played a jilted ex-lover AND the woman who broke his heart and married another man...so in the climactic scene, after a madcap story of jumbled screwball characters, i took over the woman's part and we reconciled (as i revealed that he was the father of my child...well, one of them at least) and we decided to run away together. and then kissed. which seemed to get a confused response from the audience...i believe it went along the lines of "awwwwwwwWWOOOOOOOOOooooummmmmm..."

and i recall a Start Trekkin' show from years ago where i believe Shana was an alien princess or ambassador (or both) and Lampe immediately pimped me out to fall in love with her. so after an entire show of nervous flirtation and avoidance (while the Captain negotiated a peace between her people and another planet or some suchness), we had a final scene where we confessed our true feelings, lamented that our worlds would keep us apart and shared one first and last kiss...which is the first time i can recall making an audience go "awww..." (i might be getting some plot details on that one wrong...it was a long time ago and every Start Trekkin' show i was in has started to congeal into one mass memory...

)

HerrHerr · Post by **HerrHerr** » January 19th, 2011, 5:53 pm

I had a scene with former GGG member Tara White early on in my improv career that was
pretty powerful. We were a couple that lived on an island, away from the world, and we were
bracing for a storm...potential death, etc...In our scene, we argued like crazy and then finally
came to our senese and realized that we might die. Everything ended in a very sweet kiss and we just
held each other...

jillybee72 · Post by **jillybee72** » January 19th, 2011, 10:13 pm

Joe Bill and I had a scene we did at a show in Atlanta. A French woman knocked on the door of his hotel room and asked if his room had a refrigerator because she had a heart for transplant in a cooler. She was so delicate and lovely, and he was just a regular Midwestern guy on a business trip. He was so taken with her, so utterly spellbound, it was clearly the most amazing moment in his ordinary life. She was in deep frantic trouble, traveling with a stolen heart to replace her broken one. She had a monologue about how easily she falls in love that included all the things she falls in love with, including, "I fall in love with the sound of a telephone ringing, in a room too far away to answer." There was a point where he was blathering on and she kissed him to stop him from talking and it was so romantic and so lovely.

That's one of the nice things about being in a duo with Joe. More than once he has labeled me as the most incredibly beautiful woman he has ever known. Walking around with that for 20 minutes is a wonderful feeling.

John Sexton got that set on tape but said it was too low quality. I regret, I regret.

mpbrockman · Post by **mpbrockman** » January 20th, 2011, 11:59 am

the_reverend wrote:before that show, i guested with GGG on an Austin access show. Aden and i had a nervous courtship on a park bench over a sandwich (again with the sandwiches! don't tell me my heart and stomach aren't connected!). it may have been the sweetest improv scene i've ever been in.

Was that the "Sacre Bleu" show? If so I may have it on CD - I know I've seen it recently. I should put that up on Vimeo if I can find it.

I remember a lot of great moments from that show. I also remember they had me lit so I looked like I was either very nauseous (probably a bad sandwich), under water or an Andorian (perhaps all three).

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell · January 20th, 2011, 12:11 pm

mpbrockman wrote:
the_reverend wrote:before that show, i guested with GGG on an Austin access show. Aden and i had a nervous courtship on a park bench over a sandwich (again with the sandwiches! don't tell me my heart and stomach aren't connected!). it may have been the sweetest improv scene i've ever been in.
Was that the "Sacre Bleu" show? If so I may have it on CD - I know I've seen it recently. I should put that up on Vimeo if I can find it.

I remember a lot of great moments from that show. I also remember they had me lit so I looked like I was either very nauseous (probably a bad sandwich), under water or an Andorian (perhaps all three).

indeed! i have it on DVD, but it's formatted oddly so that i can either watch it in random chunks on my DVD player (where it starts randomly in the middle of a scene) or watch it in its entirey on my computer, but i can't advance forwards or backwards and have to watch it all in real time, starting in the middle of one of our warm up scenes (after which there are several minutes of an empty stage, lol!).

for all these troubles, i still dig it out and watch it every few months or so.

DollarBill · Post by **DollarBill** » January 21st, 2011, 12:45 am

Wasn't there a really good one in the 2-man version of dasariski at oob? And then there was another one narrated by Patti Stiles where Beeler had the kiss with the gardener.

Come to think of it... There's something about Beeler though... Whenever I share a stage with her we're almost always best friends, young and in love, an old married couple... Very rarely are we adversaries.

Getting even further off topic now:
Where as when I share the stage with one of my very good friends up here in Chi-town my character almost always hates his character and his character almost always is trying to impress my character. Hmmmmm... I'll try to love him tomorrow on stage. UH OH! PLANNING AN IMPROV!

Thanks for the realization-burn, Bolden.

KathyRose · Post by **KathyRose** » January 21st, 2011, 7:29 am

A long time ago, when Wesley Bain was leading the jam at the Hideout, we played a scene together with the suggestion of "playground." We were both little children who liked each other a lot, but pretended we didn't. (You know - real life.) Towards the end of the scene, Wes brought me some repulsive gift, which I of course rejected with a crushing retort. Crestfallen, he asked, "what do you want?" I said, "I want you to go away." He got this hurt look in his eyes, then he kissed me. It wasn't a peck on the cheek, it was a tender, genuine kiss. (I didn't resist.) Then he left, looking back over his shoulder. It was heart-breaking.

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell · January 21st, 2011, 9:03 am

DollarBill wrote:And then there was another one narrated by Patti Stiles where Beeler had the kiss with the gardener.

yes! god, there was an amazing line in that scene...something about a window? that's gonna bug me the rest of the day...thanks, Bill! ya jerk...

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell · January 21st, 2011, 9:12 am

Bill is no longer a jerk...for he documented the very line for me to find in the Best Lines archives!

DollarBill wrote:After her gardener crashed through a window he was admiring her through... "Are you okay!?! That window is full of glass!"
-Beelerschmidt

Post by **bradisntclever** » January 21st, 2011, 9:16 am

the_reverend wrote:Bill is no longer a jerk...for he documented the very line for me to find in the Best Lines archives!

DollarBill wrote:After her gardener crashed through a window he was admiring her through... "Are you okay!?! That window is full of glass!"
-Beelerschmidt

Oh man, as soon as you mentioned glass, I remembered about 90% of the quote. That was such a great line.

Jessica · Post by **Jessica** » January 21st, 2011, 9:21 am

I love playing with Jon Buseman in the FTM. We had a really sweet scene where we were both hot dogs on a roller. We were in love, but we knew we'd soon be eaten and separated from each other. Fortunately, Ed ate both of us, so we had a tumultuous reunion in his stomach. Then Ed took a roller coaster ride and threw us both up and we ended up in a trash can together - mutilated, but happy to be together. The thing that was awesome about it was that through all the crazy kid satisfying stuff, we didn't loose the tender feelings. It was lovely.

DollarBill · Post by **DollarBill** » January 24th, 2011, 1:14 pm

DollarBill wrote: I'll try to love him tomorrow on stage.

Okay... after our last show I realized that there's nothing I can do. He does it to himself. He loves getting beat up on. And if that's what he wants, wouldn't I be a jerk not to give it to him?

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell · January 24th, 2011, 1:17 pm

DollarBill wrote:
DollarBill wrote: I'll try to love him tomorrow on stage.
Okay... after our last show I realized that there's nothing I can do. He does it to himself. He loves getting beat up on. And if that's what he wants, wouldn't I be a jerk not to give it to him?

you're not a jerk, Bill Stern. you're one of the best people i know. even when you're a jerk, Bill Stern.

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » January 24th, 2011, 1:43 pm

It's true, Bill. Sometimes relationships really click onstage and I always have a good time playing off your ques and gifts. You're always so generous to play with.

Great idea for a forum thread, Jon. Romance in improv can be so lovely...

It's very easy for me to get swept away in the moment onstage. I have loved so deeply that it's been hard to shake the feeling when I get offstage later. Maybe that sounds weird but it's easy for me to lose myself on occasion.

In Eris 2035 I remember several shows where I had relationships that felt bitter sweet when they came to their inevitably destructive end. Even shed some unexpected tears when I knew we were going to die up here, all alone. There was one where Roy was on the Eris and a woman he loved years ago was stranded on the Eros, when he finally found her (me) they embraced passionately before she confessed she was dying. He decided to stay on her diseased ship with her to the end.

In Dickens I had the chance to "know" a character throughout their entire life on a couple of occasions. It always felt wonderful to finally have that wedding and quietly retire.

I've had some great moments with Curtis onstage, in the A&M, in Dickens. He's always so adept at portraying the intricacies of a relationship.

In a particular Hitchcocked! show my character loved so hard she killed things and I really felt strange longing for Troy's character, who was very naive and well-meaning (all the better for the story).

In PGraph I've gotten to explore all kinds of love and I've really enjoyed that. I'd feel like a jerk if I came on this thread and blabbed away for too long, but recently we had a show about a homosexual couple (played by Roy and Kareem) and Val and I played their foster children. I thought by the end of the show the world we created was very sweet. We were all huddled together talking on a bench and I thought it was a very honest stage picture and moment.

It feels so good to be close to others onstage.

I guess that's part of why I'm teaching 'Romance and Intimacy on Stage', a Hideout essential elective on February 8th from 7-9pm. It's a side of improv I really enjoy exploring.
And it's always a team effort, you know?